Outerbanks- The details

So in the weeks leading up to our adventure to the Outerbanks, we consulted with Brayden's occupational therapist on how to get protein in his body since that is the main food item he was lacking.  During this time we also faced the daunting task of removing dairy from Brayden.  This was his main source of food so it was very scary to implement.  True to his food jagging (fixating on one food), Brayden switched from daily yogurt drinks to Trader Joe's veggie chips.  That was just about all he would eat.  At this point, our OT came up with a plan.  In the past, rewards have failed with Brayden. He would just become upset that he couldn't eat the foods he had to eat to earn his reward. He loves rewards so we knew this was just a matter of not being capable of meeting our demands.  His OT started even slower.  She made a small booklet showing what happens to our body if we don't eat protein.  She then showed what happened to our bodies when we do.  She then asked Brayden what reward he would most like.  He replied "Ninjago legos", his favorite.  They went through and made pictures of what would constitute a "meal" for purposes of this chart.  Each meal had to include a protein.  Bacon is the only protein Brayden would agree to so every meal had bacon and that was either paired with pancakes or applesauce pouches.  If he ate two meals per day, he received a check mark.  After one week he would get his lego set.  This was incredibly hard for Brayden.  He also had a picture page that showed what to do when he felt like he couldn't eat.  That showed that he had to eat 8 bites to get his check mark.  Well, I'm happy to say he made it.

So guess what we packed a ton of on our trip?  Bacon!  He has another reward chart to do while we are there which includes trying ham (the other meat he was able to eat last year).  So that is our plan for feeding him.  He will have high protein pancakes in the morning with bacon.  Bacon for lunch and dinner, along with his veggie chips, fruit strips, and applesauce pouches.  We are hoping he will try more of the healthy foods we are bringing.

Now as many of you already know, me and my husband primarily eat primal foods on a daily basis and we wanted to maintain this diet on our trip.  Packing enough meat for 5 days seemed like a daunting task.  We went to our local butcher the week before, chose our meats, deep froze them and stored them in brand new coolers we had purchased.  These were five day coolers that weren't meant to stay cold for at least five days.  We then froze a bunch of water bottles and layered them in between the meat.  We added ice up until our ferry departure.  We then had a separate cooler to hold dairy products and the days meat.  The meat cooler was only to be opened once per day.

In addition, we bought an awesome screen house from Lightspeed tents.  I already owned a half dome sun shelter from them and just love the quality of their products.  So the finally detail was well, a bit personal here.  The potty!  With a three year old, squatting can be a bit difficult to teach.  I insisted that she needed to be able to sit to go.  So this is what we rigged.

It's simply a 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out.  The top is a toilet lid especially made for these buckets.  After you go, you scoop sand over it.  Just like a litter box!  So how did it work?

Let's see...

Outerbanks trip - the plan

Back in the chilly days of winter, we began talking about our summer vacation in an attempt to ward off those winter blues. We had big dreams of Disney Land, the California Coast or renting a beach house for a week.  My husband had worked really hard this year with long hours and weekends where he would rather be playing golf or wrestling with the kids.  We wanted that dream vacation.

Also during this time, our concern for our eight year old increased as he continued to refuse healthy foods and basically get his fuel from yogurt drinks and gluten free processed sweets.  We were continuing his weekly therapy, playing tough love, bribing, coddling, trying peer pressure. Nothing worked.  So I sat and thought to myself, when is he most hungry? When is he most at ease? When is he just a boy without the anxiety, OCD, and constant search for food that is palatable? My answer was easy.  When he is one with nature.

That answer formulated our trip to the Outer Banks.  Initially we looked for back country adventures at places like Land Between the Lakes and Lake Cumberland; however, there was nothing novel about that for my 8 year old backpacker of a son.  That was when we decided the ocean was the place for us.  Just about that time, my husband read an article in Backpacker magazine about Shackleford Island in the Outer Banks. It seemed perfect!  A ferry would drop us off and we would camp among ocean creatures and wild horses.  Here is a picture of Shackleford Island with a horse roaming that I took from our ultimate destination.

As the school year ended and we began to solidify our plans, we had visions of horses trampling us at night and my husband spending the first two days lugging our gear from the drop off to our site.  It was at that point that my husband discovered Cape Lookout National Seashore.  It seemed to have it all.  We could drive our car to where ever we wanted and have everything we needed.  There would be few people during the week in such a remote location.  You have to take a car ferry to get there so we would be without everyday conveniences.  No more running to the store to fuel my son's latest cravings. So there it was, Cape Lookout.

Now that we had a place, we needed a plan.  You see our theory was this.  My son has severe sensory processing disorder.  In every day life, he can't filter the constant changing stimuli that invade his senses. He becomes overwhelmed and anxious trying to meet the demands of an 8 year old's life.  When he is in nature, those demands are no longer there.  Although nature is ever changing, it is also constant in the stimulus that is provides.  There are always waves crashing, birds chirping, crickets singing and fresh air filling your nostrils.  There is a certain comfort with the predictability of not having to engage in the social aspects of life that are overwhelming.  There is also the stability of knowing that there will be no transitions.  Dad won't be going to work and mom won't be dictating the day's activities. All of my son's sensory needs are met in nature.  So our theory was that if we could provide those sensory needs consistently for more than three days, Brayden would better be able to filter the sensory overload of his oral senses.  If we only provide nourishing foods during those days, then he will have to eat them to fuel his hunger caused by the constant stimulation of nature.  By day five, we believed we would be able to show Brayden what he was capable of eating without vomiting and therefore break his viscous cycle of not eating.

So what do we plan to feed him on those days?  How will we pull this off?  Stay tuned for more details...

The Spy in my Child's Brain

So I recently read a book that has left me thinking for literally weeks now.  I then started following the author's blog and now I'm pretty convinced this is a person with many answers.  The book, Finding Kansas by Aaron Likens is about "Living and Decoding Asperger's Syndrome".  If any of you have been following the news lately, you might know that Asperger's syndrome is no longer considered a diagnosis as it falls on the Autism spectrum and in the future will be labeled as such.  Anyway, the author Aaron Likens, was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome as a young adult.  This means he went through his entire childhood not knowing why he thought differently then others.

When Likens received his diagnosis, his father handed him a journal and told him to start writing about it.  Finding Kansas is basically those journal entries.  I think what I found most interesting about this book was the raw emotion and insightful discoveries he made as he learned about his thought process.  There were so many references that really lit a light bulb for me in explaining some of my son's behaviors.  Here are just a few.

In his book, Likens talks about this pop can that sat on his television for the longest time.  It has been left there by a friend and Likens never moved it because it reminded him of that time he spent with his friend.  One day his mother tidied up his room and removed the can.  He was so distraught over this little can because for him, it tied him to his friend.  Perhaps this explains why I can not remove a single thing from Brayden's room without asking him first.  The times I have removed them, he has spouted off some remote connection to that item that I ruined by discarding it.  Now if he makes the decision to remove it, that is a different story because he can decide if he needs it for that memory.  This is why I am certain that his aquarium ticket stubs from three years ago will never leave his room.

On his blog, Likens talks about how calming a road trip was for him.  Brayden is our best traveler and always has been.  The only time he complains is when we stop and make him get out.  So why does Liken's enjoy these trips?  Because he knows his parents will be there from start to finish.  They will not have to go to work, run to the store or leave the house for some other obligation.  Everything is stable and consistent in a car traveling to a destination.  There are no transitions in the car. Makes total sense.

A third connection from Liken's writings that I found interesting was how he interpreted his inability to socialize.  This has always been a huge area of concern with Brayden.  He is a totally different child at home than he is in a social situation and there are very few people that he can actually have a conversation with outside of his family.  Likens experienced this same frustration growing up.  In his words, he found it difficult to engage in a conversation because of how fast his mind work.  He over thinks everything.  So in conversation, he has to think about what the person is saying and then his response and then predict what the person's response will be to his response.  If you add another person to the conversation...well, you can just imagine all the thinking that goes on.  This would completely explain why Brayden only listens in social situations.

Along this same line is probably one of the most interesting aspects about Likens that appears to be similar for Brayden.  Likens is a well known speaker for Autism.  Yes, he is a public speaker who speaks to thousands of professionals, parents and students.  He describes himself as an actor playing out the role.  When public speaking, there is no conversation.  It is almost always one way.  You speak about what you know most about.  We have found that Brayden has no trouble talking in front of his class or speaking in his school play.  This has puzzled those who have labeled him as "painfully shy".  If I look at it from Liken's perspective, it makes total sense.

I have only read the book once and given all the insight it has given, I think it deserves a second glance.  What do you think about my connections?   Reading this book almost made me feel like I have a spy in my son's brain who might be able to help me understand him better.  What do you think?